World War, 1939-1945--Aerial operations, American

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This collection relates to the 385th Bombardment Group, Heavy, that was stationed at Station 155, Great Ashfield, Suffolk, England during World War II.  The collection includes a publication which documents the group's history during the war.

Scope and Contents The collection of the 460th Heavy Bombardment Group Society contains a unit history of this B-24 U.S. Army Air Corps Group, 55th Wing, 760th, 761st, 762nd, 763rd Squadrons and Group Headquarters, which served in the Italian Campaign. This collection primarily focuses on the memory of the war and those who served in the 460th. Included is a listing of the airmen who were held as prisoners of war, including their squadrons, positions on the plane (e.g. pilot, gunner), the date, mission, and what country or stalag in which they were held. Also included is a booklet, "Remembering the 460th Bomb Group (H)," which contains photographs, personnel lists, and maps, and was prepared as a...

Scope and Contents Carl O. Dunbar, Jr. served in the U.S. Marine Corps Fighter Squadron VMF-214 as a pilot in the Pacific Campaign during World War II. This collection contains news articles, navigation log books, photographs, and a scrapbook with artifacts, government documents and letters, photographs, and ephemera. Dunbar's flight mission log book recorded action at Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands. This collection also contains a manuscript written by Dunbar's son, Peter, which highlights his father's military career and flying experiences. The photographs are from before, during, and after World War II. Dunbar included materials from his activities after the war, including his career as a lawyer...

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This collection contains an oral history transcript of Staff Sergeant Charles Diedling, a flight engineer on a B-24 with the 460th Bomb Group at Spinazola, Italy. Charles Diedling discusses his training as a flight engineer and waist gunner for the B-24 at Keesler AFB, Mississippi and Loredo AFB, Texas.  In June of 1944, he was assigned to the 460th Bomb Group of the 15th Air Force in Spinazola, Italy. Diedling was shot down over Germany becoming a prisoner of war.

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Charles Campbell was bombardier on a B-17 who was shot down over Linz, Austria and captured by the Germans. While in captivity, he was sent to Mauthausen concentration camp and managed to keep a journal of his experiences there. He served with the 483rd Bombardment Group. Just prior to the war's end, Campbell was transferred to an unidentified Stalag and credits this with saving his life. The collection includes reproductions of 483rd Bomb Group artwork, a statement and picture of the Mauthausen concentration camp from after the war, a World War II memoir with pictures and documents and a copy of his obituary.

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Crispen Nissen served as a sergeant in the U.S. Army Air Corps with the 12th and 18th Weather Squadrons during World War II in the United States, England, North Africa, and Italy. This collection includes an original diary Nissen kept from 1941-1942, describing his daily thoughts, experiences, and observations about the general war effort. The collection also includes Vmail and handwritten letters, written by Nissen to his fiancee and future wife, Etrulia Ellis, as well as the letters she sent to him.

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This collection consists of an oral history transcript of an interview with 2nd Lt. James J. Crooke, who served in World War II. Crooke served in the Army Air Corps with the 303rd Bomb Group in the European Theater (ETO).

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The Edward L. Herp papers document Captain Edward Herp's time spent as a radio operator for the 321st Fighter Control Squadron of the 9th Air Force for the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. The collection contains an oral history, various photographs, the bulk of them taken at the Buchenwald concentration camp, a letter discussing the photographs, personal documents, postcards, and other items that illustrate his service in Great Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, and Czechoslovakia. Also in the oral history, Herp discusses his time spent working at Florida State University for WFSU-TV and as a professor of television production.

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This collection pertains to First Lieutenant Elwood Harry Fredrickson who served as a bombardier in the 743rd Bomb Squadron, 455th Bomb Group. The collection contains flight records, textbooks and notes from flight school, assignments from flight school, various documents regarding Fredrickson’s postings, personnel lists, volumes one and two of the 455th Bomb Group Journal, booklets on aviation and cadet life, various receipts, certificates and photographs.

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This oral history interview transcript relates to George Logue,  an aerial gunner armament specialist on a B-24 assigned to the 15th Air Force.  Logue discusses his bombing missions over Europe, being shot down, life as a prisoner of war, and his brief service with the British 5th Army.

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This World War II collection relates to Harold Truman Speck, a copilot Flight Officer of nine B-17 bombing raids over Europe. He served with the 545th Bombardment Squadron, 384th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force. This collection consists of photocopies of photographs, military personnel records, books, medals, pins, and Speck's personal POW journal provided by the Harold Truman Speck family.

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The Edwin Ivy papers illustrate 2nd Lieutenant Ivy's service in the Army Air Corps in the 485th Heavy Bombardment Group, 831st Squadron, from 1942-1945 in Italy, France, and Austria where he was shot down and became a prisoner of war in Stalag Luft III. Ivy's oral history encompasses the majority of his collection and provides detail of his military training, time spent in the Army Air Corps, as a prisoner of war, and being discharged. His papers also include the first chapter of Old Man in a Baseball Cap by Fred Rochlin. The chapter describes the significance of remembering the past and passing down experiences to others.

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Oral history of U.S. Army Air Corps B-17 Co-Pilot Colonel Jack H. Heinzel, an American prisoner of war who survived the Bataan death march and subsequent "Hell Ships" starting in April of 1942. The collection contains one folder with fifteen pages detailing this airman's experience of these atrocities.

Content Description

This collection relates to Frank Louis Lash who served as a Captain pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps in the 587th squadron, 394th Bomb Group in the 8th Air Force which was based in England. The collection consists of a mechanical navigational watch and a brief manuscript detailing how the watch was acquired.

Content Description

This collection relates to John L. McQuigg (Lieutenant Colonel with the US Army Air Force) who served with the 8th Air Force in Photographic Reconnaissance in the European and Mediterranean Theaters and participated in the North African and the Italian Allied Photo Reconnaissance Wing, including surveillance for the Anzio Landing. The collection contains military papers, ephemera, photographs, artifacts, and maps covering John L. McQuigg's communication with his wife and children, surveillance operations during the war, and documents from the Air Force reserves following the war.

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This collection consists of WWII U.S. Army Air Corps 9th Bombardment Group photographs, letters, military papers, and documents. Also included in this collection are extensive aerial and personal photographs, date book, unit yearbook, and "buddy book" address book.

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The bulk of this collection consists of log transcriptions of the missions in which Francis P. Rondinone participated. Rondinone was a staff sergeant in the 8th Air Force where he worked as a B-24 Flight Engineer. The log entries cover information such as date, mission purpose, flying time and place. The file also includes a picture of Rondinone in uniform, a scan of his Certificate of Valor, photocopies of documents regarding his Honorable Discharge certificate, his obituary and two poems of unknown authorship related to his squadron.

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This collection relates to First Lieutenant Julian Davis Sewell who served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II as a Navigator.  The collection includes an address book containing the names of men who served with Sewell, a basic U.S. Army Air Corps aeronautics class notebook, Civil Aeronautics Bulletin, and 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment Ceremony program and roster.

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This collection consists of an oral history and the three brief memoirs of Rolf Slen who served as a navigator with the 494th Bomb Squadron, 7th Air Force, in the Pacific Theater during World War II.

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This collection was compiled by Edward McKenzie and includes a directory of New Hampshire Ex-POWs book. It is a boxed collection of approroximately 20 individual collections of American POWs who were interned at Stalag 17. The individual collections collectively consist of personal papers, transcripts, documents, photographs, and drawings relating to their experiences as prisoners of war.

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This collection contains letters, photograph albums, postcards, documents, and ephemera which record the military service and family homefront life during World War II of Eddie Houston Thomason who served as a physician in U.S. Army Air Corps Medical Service.

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This collection relates to Marvin S. Waits who served with the 14th Air Force in China. He was enlisted from 1942-1945. This collection contains an interview with Waits with information about his experiences in China during the war, the censorship in the US Army, the terrors in the mission, and the relationship between soldiers and local people.

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Adolph Joseph Westheimer served in the US Army Air Corps during World War II in the Pacific Theater. The collection includes personal letters, government documents pertaining to his service, some postcards, tickets, papers with Japanese scripts, and Japanese artifacts. It also includes the oral history transcript of the Westheimer interview and manuscripts giving detailed descriptions and information on living conditions of Air Force members during the war in Japan. In addition, it includes the certificates of his physical conditions.

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Hugh Zeigler served with the 454th Heavy Bomb Aviation Ordnance Company, handling and caring for bombs, during World War II in the Philippine Islands. He was captured there by the Japanese and spent the remainder of the war in a POW camp. This collection consists of an oral history interview transcript conducted on January 6, 2000.